Saving the pets

December 30, 2005

ANOTHER OPINIONFrom The Washington Post It sounds like an impossible goal for the Washington Humane Society: to reach a 100 percent placement rate for adoptable dogs and cats in good homes by 2010. The society, nonetheless, has established a five-year plan to guarantee a permanent home for every healthy and good-tempered animal that comes into its shelters. That is an ambitious undertaking for a city where the influx of homeless animals runs into the thousands -- 12,000 for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The alternative -- putting companionable animals to death by the thousands -- clearly runs counter to the Humane Society's core mission of rescuing and saving animals in trouble. The newly announced adoption goal and its added stress on reducing unwanted animal births are worth aggressive pursuit. Euthanasia in shelters will not end for obvious reasons. Rescued animals that are dangerously sick, severely injured or vicious will continue to be euthanized. But temperamentally sound dogs or cats in good health ought to be saved. The Washington Humane Society intends to go one step further, it says, by focusing on "medical treatment and behavioral correction" to help animals, especially dogs, "overcome obstacles to adoption." To be sure, there is a pet overpopulation problem in the city. The District of Columbia's population of feral cats is believed to number in the thousands. The society has also pledged to increase the availability of programs to reduce the number of homeless cats, including opening a full-time clinic devoted to spaying and neutering. Will the euthanasia of adoptable animals become a thing of the past in five years, as the Washington Humane Society has announced? Toward that end, it has embarked on a million-dollar fund-raising campaign to fuel the effort. For the well-being of the animals and the people who live with and around them, we hope that the undertaking is successful.